### 316

You steer your horse onto the crowded highway and draw up alongside a covered wagon that shields you from the eyes of the approaching Chai rangers, but your actions do not go unnoticed. The rangers turn their horses onto the highway, scattering refugees as they force their way through. It will take more than your Magnakai Discipline of Invisibility to keep you and your horse hidden from these elite cavalrymen. Inexorably, they draw closer and you are forced to abandon your attempt to hide beside the wagon which no longer provides any cover from the approaching rangers.

You leave the wagon and force your way through the refugees. The moment you are off the highway, you urge your mare to the gallop and head due west towards a range of low hills. They will provide you with good cover in which to shake off the Chai cavalrymen who are now pursuing you across rain-swept grassland.

The rangers give up the chase as soon as you enter the hills. Reluctantly, they turn their horses around and ride back to the highway. As you watch them go, you resolve to head north through the hills and attempt to return to the highway nearer Pensei. You have been riding for an hour when you happen upon a large timber cabin surrounded by a split log fence.

If you wish to stop and investigate this remote homestead, turn to 76.

If you do not, you can continue your ride through the hills by turning to 337.